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Golden Retriever Is Obsessed With Giving People Hugs

Whenever Cesar Fernandez-Chavez walks his dog Louboutina in Manhattan, it's never an ordinary walk. Within minutes of hitting the sidewalks, Louboutina (or Loubie for short) wants to stop, greet people and then hug them, wrapping her forelegs around their knees.

"It's just not a regular walk," Fernandez-Chavez tells The Dodo. "It's a walk with hugging. So we don't get to go too far."

"She started sitting up and grabbing my hands with both of her paws, and then crossing the other paw over her paw," Fernandez-Chavez said. "I remember joking with my friends, 'At least I have someone to hold hands with during Valentine's.'"

Holding hands quickly became Loubie's favorite thing to do, and she usually did this during walks out in New York.

"From then on, every walk, she wanted to hold hands," Fernandez-Chavez says. "She would just sit up and cross her paw over the other, and look around like a lady. People passing by were like, 'Oh my god, she's so cute.'"

Then, a couple years later, Loubie started showing her affection a different way - with hugs.

"Instead of asking me to do the holding hands thing, she just sat up, very close to my legs, and she'd wrap her legs around my knees," Fernandez-Chavez says. "I thought, 'This is weird. What's going on?' But I let her do it."

While Loubie is quite generous with her hugs, she doesn't just hug anyone - she only hugs people she makes a connection with, according to Fernandez-Chavez. "Sometimes people run up and ask for a hug, but I tell them, 'I don't think it's going to happen,' because she has to bond with that person first," he said. "But when she sits next to someone, then I say, 'You're probably going to get a hug.'"

"It's nice to see people walk away with a smile," Fernandez-Chavez says. "Especially with everything that is happening now, people say it's so good to see this on the street. She's bringing them joy. It's very rewarding."